We are a family of 5 that decided to leave the comforts and familiarity of home and hit the road. We are taking time to travel and learn about ourselves and the country we live in.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Recycle this!

Dear Starbucks,Thank you for reminding me why I chose to boycott you over the last few years. I truly try to practice the "Support your local coffee shop" idea. It was hard not to notice you in every little town and grocery store I visited during the last 15 months on the road. I could've taken the quick route and jumped out at any corner for my Chai and coffee fix. Instead, I ventured on down the lonely road to find the local coffee hut. When buying my coffee for home, I chose to pay just a bit extra for the local grind. And I always look for and if found, purchase fair trade coffee.Now that I'm back to paying rent and bills I opted to purchase a bag of Organic Starbucks coffee because, well, it was on sale that day. My guilt lifted a bit when I got home and noticed the little writing inside the bag that said to return my empty coffee bag to any local Starbucks for recycling and a free cup of joe. I thought way to step it up Starbucks. I've heard stories about the support you give to the communities. How you support our troops and so on. I even went as far as to google you and read about your "green efforts" and how much you recycle.Well then, one question. Tell me why then, after I gave the girl behind the counter my "recycled bag" she turned around and tossed it into the garbage?Lesson Learned!Thanks for the reminder.

Everytime I get a comment card there (or any other fast food place like Chick-fi-A) I always ask why don't you RECYCLE?! Starbucks actually wrote me back once (corporate jargon I'm sure) and talked about their policies, etc. I'm hoping if we all keep at it they will take notice!